


clearing the air

by shcherbatskayas



Series: a different breed of star [3]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School, Super Dangan Ronpa 2
Genre: Alternate Universe - Idols, Awkward Conversations, F/M, Gen, Peko Deals With Emotions, Subways, shcherbatskayas content
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-08
Updated: 2018-02-08
Packaged: 2019-03-15 08:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,002
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13609368
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shcherbatskayas/pseuds/shcherbatskayas
Summary: “Oh, sorry.” A voice says, andno, this can’t be happening, no way, it can’t actually be—It is.





	clearing the air

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thewildwilds](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thewildwilds/gifts).



> idol au hell part three arrives! i have. a lot of things going on at once so i haven't been able to write The Good Kuzupekos for like a month, but voila! I found the time between my mp100 stuff and my school stuff and my preparing for college stuff and my need for naps, and also thank you anh for the request and the motivation and for screaming about kuzupeko with me. i'd love to know what all of you think about this one, and thanks for reading! <333

The subway car is crowded today, a little too crowded for three in the afternoon, but Peko doesn’t mind. It’s her usual car that she takes from school to the store where she buys various snacks to keep in her dorm, the car she’s been avoided riding for some time now, but now she’s back on it. She’s been back on it for three days, and there’s been no incidents. No idols in her periphery, no paparazzi hanging around in her line of sight, no one she knows even reporting seeing him anywhere. Amagasaki isn’t necessarily a very big city, so Peko takes that as a pleasant surprise and makes herself stop worrying about running into him. And even if she did see him, nothing would happen. She had been being silly earlier, but she wasn’t being silly now. She was reasonable and rational and didn’t care, she really didn’t care about an incident that happened months ago and it was fine, it was fine, it was all fine. She didn’t even think about it anymore. 

The train stops. Picks up more passengers. Keeps moving. Peko looks down at her phone and checks to see if there are any messages. Nothing, as per usual. She has two more stops left before hers and the car only grows more crowded, only grows warmer. Peko regrets choosing to wear tights with her uniform and she scratches at the back of her calf with the tip of her shoe, balancing precariously on one leg. Still, her one hand is fixed at a good spot on the pole and she’s always been balanced, so she doesn’t think about falling. 

When it stops again, Peko stumbles, but the stumble is microscopic. Barely noticable. She slides her phone back into her bookbag and plants her other foot back on the floor by the time that the train starts moving again. The newest arrivals are still trying to find places and she stays as out of the way as she can, but still, one of them bumps into her arm. 

“Oh, sorry.” A voice says, and _no, this can’t be happening, no way, it can’t actually be—_

It is. 

Fuyuhiko doesn’t look so tall now. He’s not sitting at some high table with cameras all around him and he’s not in an outfit that costs more than her whole family’s weight in gold and he’s not anyone noticeable here, not anyone noticeable now. Here, he’s just a teenage boy in a tee-shirt and jeans. Here, he’s above Peko’s shoulder, but just barely. 

Peko is aware of the fact that she’s staring. He’s staring back, and he takes ahold of the pole just below where her hands are settled. If she moved her left hand just a bit, and he kept his right hand where it was, their skin would be touching. 

“You.” She says, ineloquent and accustory and a million other ugly things that she should be above by now, but she isn’t. She might never be. 

“You.” He repeats, but it’s less angry. More shocked. Louder than her proclamation, which was little more than a hiss. Her gut reaction is to be amazed that he even remembered her, but then she’s angry all over again. 

“What are you doing here?” Peko asks, her nose wrinkling up as she stares down at him. The car is way too hot now, and she can feel her bangs sticking to her forehead and the air is heavy in her lungs when she breathes in. 

“In this subway car? Or like, here in general?” The question seems genuine, but Peko doesn’t trust it. Doesn’t trust a lot of things these days. 

She breathes in again. Holds it. Breathes out. “Guess.” 

“In general, then. And, uh, I don’t know. I just wanted somewhere quiet to be in between tours, and I thought that maybe...I thought if I came here, that I might be able to…Fuck, I don’t know.” Fuyuhiko looks uncertain now, withering beneath her gaze. He puts a hand in his pocket, and when the train turns, the hand attaching him to the pole slips and he nearly falls over. 

Peko’s arm reacts before her brain does and she reaches out to steady him, and then her mouth takes advantage of the lapse in judgement and goes off. “Do you remember me?” 

“Yeah. Yeah, of course I do.” Fuyuhiko’s looking up at her, eyes bright and earnest and she wants to doubt him. “Peko Pekoyama, right? Can’t forget a name like that.”

Her hand returns to its rightful place and her grip tightens on the pole and her knuckles turn red, and then purple, and then blinding white. “You made a similar comment back in December, I believe.”

“Right. That.” He sighs, and the heat must be making her hallucinate, because Peko sees his face and he looks almost ashamed for a second. “Look, are you opposed to getting ice cream?”

Peko doesn’t answer. She’s too shocked to have a coherent response to that. She just blinks at him hard and he continues. “Because, I don’t know, I have a lot I want to talk to you about and I think you might want to say a thing or two to me, and there’s supposedly a place with really good soft-serve on the next stop, so…”

The question hangs heavy in the air and is dragged slowly to the floor. Peko stays silent for a solid minute, trying to make sense of the emotions rising in her chest that then collect at the base of her throat, and she gets absolutely nowhere with it. Some of them make their way to the back of her teeth and bang against them, begging to be let out, and they force her hand. 

“I’m not opposed to it.” Peko tells him, each word slow and stiff and coming out all sorts of wrong. 

“Cool.” He nods, and then the train stops. Fuyuhiko gets off and Peko follows him, the city screaming around her.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr [here](https://shcherbatskayas.tumblr.com/)


End file.
